Dollar Car Rental - USA

stphnstevey

Has anone had any experience of booking with them?

Their website www.dollar.co.uk comes out about £200 cheaper than say Alamo for their platinum service (think we need this level as want wife to be able to drive and sat nav)

Looking to do Vegas to San Diego and particularly worried about two things:

1) ONE WAY DROP OFF FEES - read Dollar don't charge these for Nevada to California?

2) HORROR STORIES- all reviews seen so far say people have returned home to find extra insurances etc have been added that they didn't ask for, with blatantly rude customer service not giving a damn. Seems they are heavily on commision and when you arrive very tired from flight, you have to check, re-check and check again the paperwork to make sure they haven't added in any extras

trets77

Check what insurance is included in that quote .

you should get full CDW with zero excess . if this is not included in the price then it is not £200 cheaper as it is a quote without insurance ,(and you will need to factor in the cost of this) while other quotes are probably including it . don't book anything until you have talked to Carhire 3000 , they price match and have a UK call centre and include all insurance . never had issues using carhire 3000 in USA , and dollar have been our rental company through Carhire 3000 a few times

how much are you paying to hire a Sat nav ? you can buy one from Walmart for under $100 and sell it when you get home . or you could buy a 2nd hand USA one off Ebay

all USA car hire companies will try to sell you Breakdown cover and contents cover . your Travel insurance should cover you for Contents , i never bother with Breakdown . also refuse any upgrades you have to pay for . if they don't have the car you booked they must upgrade you for free

IronMaidenFan

I'm flying to Florida in May and have booked our car hire with Dollar as they were the cheapest by about £130 for a 4 door 4x4.

We've been to the US 15+ times and haven't experienced any problems with car rental companies. I check each of the major rental sites and choose the cheapest, we always go for the platinum/equivalent cover.

As trets77 says, don't hire a satnav from them, just buy one from any WalMart, it will work out much cheaper plus you will own it so can sell it when you get home if you want to.

I've just checked my rental voucher and it includes Unlimited Mileage, Loss/Collision Damage Waiver, Supplemental Liability Insurance, Uninsured Motorist Protection, All Taxes and Airport and Local Fees, All Additional Drivers Charges and Initial Tank of Petrol.

Of course all rental companies will try and sell you extra insurance that you don't need or an upgrade but just politely refuse

HTH

Nobjocki

stphnstevey wrote: »

Has anone had any experience of booking with them?

Their website www.dollar.co.uk comes out about £200 cheaper than say Alamo for their platinum service (think we need this level as want wife to be able to drive and sat nav)

Looking to do Vegas to San Diego and particularly worried about two things:

1) ONE WAY DROP OFF FEES - read Dollar don't charge these for Nevada to California?

2) HORROR STORIES- all reviews seen so far say people have returned home to find extra insurances etc have been added that they didn't ask for, with blatantly rude customer service not giving a damn. Seems they are heavily on commision and when you arrive very tired from flight, you have to check, re-check and check again the paperwork to make sure they haven't added in any extras

https://www.vroomvroomvroom.com

and

https://www.autoslash.com

might be of some help.

eslick

the rental companies are normally more expensive and often dont show zero excesses. have a look at carhire3000 really cheap at the moment or fifteen02.com for great customer service. Go for alamo if you want to choose your own car, you simply go to the car park and pick the car from the size you have booked.

ferf1223

eslick wrote: »

the rental companies are normally more expensive and often dont show zero excesses. have a look at carhire3000 really cheap at the moment or fifteen02.com for great customer service. Go for alamo if you want to choose your own car, you simply go to the car park and pick the car from the size you have booked.

It depends on the airport and the agency - some offer the pick your own at one airport and not the other. Dollar allows you to pick your own from the size you have booked at LAS.

Nobjocki

Interesting article on this subject in the NY Times from one of my favourite travel blogging sections.

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com

stphnstevey

They only trouble with using the comparison sites is we want to add an additional driver and none of them seem to quote for that

I take the point on the sat nav - if we bought european maps, would it work in the UK?

eslick

stphnstevey wrote: »

They only trouble with using the comparison sites is we want to add an additional driver and none of them seem to quote for that

they arent comparison sites they are brokers, they get better prices (normally) than going direct. all do additional drivers but like insurances they all have different name. if you look at fifteen02 its under rate 2, carhire3000 premium package, usrentacar, gold package all have multiple drivers, some have 2 only other have more. with fifteen02 some of their rate 1 packages also have them. In the process of looking for the best deal at the mo, carhire3000 is the cheapest so far.

hairy_g

stphnstevey wrote: »

They only trouble with using the comparison sites is we want to add an additional driver and none of them seem to quote for that

I take the point on the sat nav - if we bought european maps, would it work in the UK?

try these for a quote: http://www.floridahire.com/

eslick

hairy_g wrote: »

try these for a quote: http://www.floridahire.com/

£20 more expensive than my cheapest quote